Morte knew she wasn't supposed to stray far from the den, but she hadn't! She just wanted to go to the river and see if there were any rocks that she could bring home for her collection. She loved black rocks. Shiny rocks, dull rocks, point rocks, it didn't matter. She'd been told that the river could have black river rocks if she were so lucky.

Unfortunately, she wouldn't be so lucky as to make it to the river. Morte cried out in pain suddenly as her right forepaw shot off the ground quicker than it had been placed there. She hesitantly put weight on it only to hiss and hold it back up close her to body again. Well, three legs wasn't so bad. Except it was only a few hops on her other forelimb until she cried out again, this time the leg giving way underneath her from the pain. Morte fell onto her left shoulder with a whine, pulling her tiny legs close to her tiny body as real tears threatened to fall down her cheeks.

"Speech!"

Art & Code © Skelle 2022

She was exploring their new, permanent home. A bundle of random plants in her little jaws as she bounced happily across the plain. The weather was cool, and breezy, with only a little cloud cover in the sky as she bounded along. She had escaped from the den (though she was plenty old enough to wander around the pack without permission anyway), and was now on her way to find more things to collect! The plants in her mouth though were making her mouth dry...she didn't know what all she had collected yet, but hey, that was what experimenting was for, right!? Surely someone in the pack knew what these were! And if not, well...maybe mom would find someone to teach her! She was passing by close to the river that cut through the plains when she heard a yelp, and she paused only for a brief moment to glance the way she had heard it before resuming her journey again. Only she had taken a couple more steps before she heard it again, only this time it was followed up with whimpering. Crimson gaze looked again, ears perked as she wondered who it was. Had one of her siblings gone and gotten stuck under something? Had something bitten them? Was someone being killed? She wouldn't know what to do about the latter...but hey, she could at least go and see to make sure nobody was dying! Changing her course, she followed the whimpering noises and soon came upon the other kid that wasn't her siblings. She tilted her head as she looked down on the balled up little runt, blinking a couple of times. She didn't see anything visible that could be hurting her. "Did 'ou shtep onna thorn or shomethin'?" She questioned through the bundle of plants in her mouth, squinting to try and see what she assumed was there. "Speak"